Journal Of Spite
by creepyapplelady
Summary: maybe someday you will realize that there is someone out there who has it worse than you Sirius Black!" memories of someone lost. will someone from the past help Sirius return from behind the veil? secondary summary inside
1. chapter one:I'm no fag

Chapter 1

I'm Not a Fag

Remus opened the door to 12 Grimmauld Place and Sirius stepped into the gloomy light of his old home. It looked just the same as when he'd left, with more dust that is.

"I know you're not happy about this Padfoot but…" Remus said evenly.

"it's for the best." Sirius finished for him.

"yeah. Er, here." Remus thrust a box into Sirius's arms.

"what is it?"

"it's your old stuff. I had to clean out your house when you went off to Azkaban."

"you make it sound like I went of to Jamaca for a vacation and never came back. I don't suppose my motorbike is in there is it?"

Remus smiled and shook his head. "you haven't changed at all have you?"

"shut it." Sirius said with a smirk and went upstairs to see what had become of his room.

He was surprised to see that his room looked the same as it had twenty years ago. Nobody had been in to clean and there were large cobwebs in every corner. Sirius went over to the window and pried it open before casting a quick dusting charm to get rid of the cobwebs and dust. He flopped onto the bed with the box and opened it almost nervously. He had no idea what was inside and it scared him to think what emotions he might evoke simply by seeing his old things. He knew it was silly to be afraid of some old knickknacks, and he chastised himself for it as he opened the box.

Inside was his old Gryffindor scarf, a photo album, Harry's old stuffed fwooper, a stack of old papers, and James's bent glasses. Sirius kept pulling things out of the box until he came upon something that made him stop. It was a book, red leather with the name SIRIUS BLACK embossed in gold on the cover. Sirius dumped the other items back in the box and studied the book before finally opening it. He'd forgotten all about his old journal. The only reason he'd written in it was because it annoyed his family. He flipped through the first few pages covered in his and James' scribbles and doodles to reveal the first page.

"_August 31, 1974_

Ok let's be clear on one thing, I Sirius Black am NOT a fag. I got this journal for my birthday from Andromeda and the only reason I'm going to write in it is because father said that, and I quote, "journals are for girls and I forbid you to write in that". Therefore I plan to write in it as often as possible, so take that!

Sirius smiled and flipped through the pages, taking in his own scrawl as well as writing he recognised as James' and Remus' along with doodles and half-finished games of Hang-the-Dark-Lord.

Just then the door opened and shut and voices could be heard from the hall below.

"Sirius," Dumbledore called up the stairs, "come down here for a moment, I'd like to talk to you."

Sirius sighed and got up. He knew what Dumbledore would say. Stay in the house and don't get caught… blah blah blah.

A/N so there you go! New and improved chapter one, just seven more to go. Please review!!!!


	2. chapter two: Remus

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter… and stuff.

A/N ok, there are a few problems with the first chapter. Sorry

1. You may have noticed that the story title listed at the beginning of chapter one is different from the real story title, I thought up a new title when I was posting it, hence the discrepancy.

2. Sorry for any spelling mistakes, forgot to use the spell-check. Won't happen again I promise!

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Chapter 2

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September 1, 1974

Ok, it's five thirty in the morning and I'm too excited to sleep. In less than six hours I'll be on the train with my friends. I can't wait to see them again.

Remus is a werewolf. He tried to hide it but we figured it out near Christmas of second year. So now we're trying to become animagi. Shhh it's a secret. And Remus thought we'd ditch him when we found out! He's got sort of brownish blonde hair with a little bit of grey and deep blue eyes. 

Peter's a bit of a twit. He's a little heavy and has blonde hair and little watery blue eyes, not to mention a pointy nose. He's not exactly the brightest crayon in the box but he does take good pictures and knows when to shut up. And with the amount of trouble we usually get into, that's a good thing.

James has got to be my best friend. He's got black hair and brown eyes and is one of the best seekers Hogwarts has ever seen, and he knows it too. He's had a thing for Lily Evans for the last two years and we've all heard too much about her. 

As Sirius read the last part he could feel the familiar prickling sensation in his eyes. This always seemed to happen when he thought about all he had lost. The first rays of daylight were filtering through the net curtains on his window. Finally Sirius couldn't stand sitting doing nothing anymore and got dressed. He could hear someone making breakfast in the kitchen and went to investigate. Remus was bustling around, cooking eggs and toast. Sirius sat down at the table, and Remus handed him a plate of eggs. Taking his own plate he sat down across the table from Sirius. 

"You know, there's something I've been meaning to ask you for the last twenty years Padfoot"

"And what is that par say?"

"Well, Ellie told me once that you managed to burn water? Is this true?" Remus said wryly.

"Yes" Sirius said shaking his head, "it was one of my first days in the new place and she'd come over for a bit. I was boiling some water for tea and I got distracted and… well, it set off the smoke detector. Ellie thought it was pretty funny."

"And what, pray, got you so distracted from the water?"

"Believe me, it's not what you think. She'd brought some pots and stuff for me. A whole box of them. And a plant. Honest."

"Sure, sure" 

"I'm telling the truth!"

"Ok I believe you" Remus said, turning back to his plate. "You miss her don't you." he said abruptly.

"Yeah, I do. I was going to marry her, Remus. That night… I was going to ask her to marry me when…" Sirius trailed off _'you have no idea how much I loved her'_

Sirius got up from the table and went back upstairs. He pulled out the journal again and began to read.

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September 6, 1974

Muggle studies should be fun this year. We get to do things without magic like sewing and building things. And as an added bonus I get to supremely piss off my family! Most of the classes are just the same as last year. Professor Buehler is still a barmy old bat, making potions as boring as flobberworms. Speaking of flobberworms, I still have to take divination instead of Care of Magical Creatures. Unfortunately, so many people in my year signed up for it that they had to reject almost half the students who signed up. Me being one of them. James got in, and wasted no time boasting about it. Finally got him to stop by telling him that his favourite blue sweater would one day kill him. He still hasn't worn that sweater. Still have to sit by Ellie Carter during Transfiguration. Not that I mind, you can barely tell she's there. She always seems to be alone and I'm pretty sure I've never heard her speak. She sort of looks like the female version of Remus, minus the grey hair. We used to torment her something awful until the end of last year when Remus told us to lay off. He wouldn't say why. Anyway, we used to take her books and stuff, but it's not much fun bugging someone who won't fight back. 

Meanwhile back in the kitchen, Remus was shocked. He'd had no idea that Sirius had planned to marry Ellie. He knew they'd been good friends since fourth year, but he never thought of them like he had Lily and James. Remus had always liked Ellie, thought she was a good person. He could remember the first time he'd actually talked to her…

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FLASHBACK

Remus had been going to the Astronomy tower to catch up on some work one night when he'd seen someone standing on the ledge of one of the large windows.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like?" the person replied coldly. She turned and Remus realized it was Ellie.

"But why?"

"Because there's nothing left to live for. I've got no friends, my mom threw me out when I came here and my dad lives in Canada. I haven't told him about magic or he'd have disowned me too… anyway why do you care? It'll just mean one less person for you to bully." Ellie had said, a tear slipping down her face.

"But I've never…"

"Yeah ok, you've never taken my stuff or hexed me, you just stand there and watch. And it's not just me either, I've seen what you lot have done to other people. And don't pretend like you understand either, because you don't. You have no idea what it's like to be alone all the time, being shunned and bullied. You have friends who'd die for you."

"As a matter of fact I do know. I'm… a werewolf."

"Sorry"

"Don't be, you didn't know. Why don't you come down and we'll talk." and with one last glance out the window, Ellie stepped down from the ledge.

END FLASHBACK

That had been near the end of third year. After that, he'd told the others to quit bugging Ellie, but he'd never told them why. He doubted Sirius had ever found out about Ellie's attempt, probably a good thing too. He would have flown off the handle at her if she'd ever told him.

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A/N ok, that's the end of this one. Thanks for the reviews. Like I said before, sorry for the mistakes in chapter one, I'm working on fixing them. Keep reading and reviewing and I'll try to get the next chapter out soon. REVIEW!!


	3. chapter 3: Peter

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter blah blah blah.

A/N if you're looking for a good drama unfolding, check out the site my friends made at http:the48blahs.5u.com and go to the guest book. My friends are all drama queens (especially Andrew, he started the whole mess)

This is a chapter from Peter's point of view. The story isn't all about Sirius, the points of view often vary between Sirius, Remus, and sometimes Peter. I'm not crazy about him either, but if there's one thing I've learned by reading Julius Caesar, it's that no one person is totally evil, or totally good. (Except maybe Voldemort)

Chapter 3

Peter sat alone in his small apartment. He too was going through some of his old things. At the bottom of a box labelled "stuff" (He had never been any good at labelling things.) he found his old photo album. It had been ages since he had looked through it so he sat down at the table and opened the album. As he flipped through the pages he saw pictures from his time at Hogwarts, most of them were of Sirius and James goofing around while Remus watched, bemused. When he came to the photos from Lily and James's wedding, he slowed down to study each picture. Deep down inside he deeply regretted playing a part in their deaths, and looking at these pictures made the guilt he had suppressed for all these years, come back rather painfully. All the happy faces of the people in the group pictures. Peter had either been responsible for or had known about the plots to kill over half the people in the pictures.

Suddenly he came to a picture he had completely forgotten about. Sirius was standing in front of the camera, ready to have his picture taken, when he suddenly lunged out of the picture for a moment, reappearing dragging a reluctant Ellie into the frame. Peter could see her lips forming the words "but I don't want to be in the pictures". But Sirius just turned her around to face the camera and put his arms around her. Then they both grinned broadly for a moment until Ellie pointed at something outside the frame. While Sirius was looking at whatever it was she had pointed to, Ellie slipped out of his grasp and ran off. A moment later, Sirius noticed her sneaky escape and darted out of the picture to grab her.

She had never liked having her picture taken; this was one of the few pictures she'd ever been in. Peter knew that he was partly responsible for her death too.

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Voldemort was sitting at a large round table emblazoned with the dark mark, with the other Death Eaters sitting on either side of him. Peter was brought in by two masked Death Eaters. This was his first meeting. The Death Eaters steered Peter to a chair and sat down. Once everyone was seated Voldemort got up.

"Regulus"

"Yes my Lord"

"It seems your brother doesn't want to be one of us,"

"I can not say I am surprised my Lord. He has always had dislike for the dark arts,"

"Well it seems as if we need to persuade him and so we turn to our newest recruit. He is a friend of Black's. Do have a drink with us Peter." Voldemort waved his wand and a cup of tea appeared in front of each death eater. Peter had taken a few sips and began to feel light-headed. Someone had put veritaserum in his tea.

"What, Peter, are his weaknesses? What would destroy him? As you were his best friend, you tell us."

"Well, um, he has a bad temper." Peter had said, he'd had no control over his mouth at this point. The veritaserum had done its job.

"Yes go on"

"And he doesn't really think things through if someone's in danger…he is known to act rashly, though this is often confused with bravery."

"I see what do you know of Elanor Carter tell me about her"

"Um well uh…she's a muggle born. Sirius has known her since fourth year. She works in the Muggle Worthy Excuses office. I do believe his love runs deep for her. One could say she is his weak spot."

"Is that so."

"Yes."

"_Is she a member of the Order?"_

"I am not sure…I don't think so, but Sirius is… she would know about what they are doing, he tells her everything. Sirius is in the inner circle of the Order, he knows many things that I don't."

"Thank you Peter, you have been a great benefit to us. Avery, Nott, brand him… he is one of us now."

Avery and Nott approached Peter. Avery rolled up his left sleeve and tapped his inner arm, muttering under his breath while Nott held him in his chair. He felt his arm burn while black lines writhed like snakes from Avery's wand, forming the shape of the dark mark. Then it was over.

"Welcome Peter"

Two weeks later they had killed her. He had been there when they'd done it. It had been Ellie's day off and she was at the home she and Sirius had shared. They had stormed the house and taken her to an abandoned muggle warehouse. The death eaters had given her veritaserum and tortured her to try and get her to reveal the secrets of the Order Of the Phoenix. She told them nothing, she really didn't know anything. Then Sirius and some of the other aurors from the ministry had come. All the others had disapparated, and he had turned into a rat and hid in a mouse hole. Then Sirius had found Ellie lying on the floor. He had picked her up and cradled her in his arms. She said something to him and then died. Sirius had just sat there, holding her until James came and took Sirius home with him.

The sound of Ellie's screams of pain still haunted Peter at night.

A/N well there you have it, chapter three. We finally know what happened to Ellie. Reading it over, I almost have sympathy for Peter. Hmmm well maybe not so much. There will probably be another chapter describing Ellie's death from another point of view, not to mention the all-important death of Lily and James. Questions, comments, criticism, flames and all other forms of reviews accepted. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS REVIEWED!!!!!!!!!!!!! KEEP READING AND REVIEWING!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! J

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	4. chapter 4: talking to an elephant

Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

Chapter 4

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I will not alter other student's clothing

I will not alter other student's clothing

I altered other students clothing and it was totally worth it! James and I sewed the head and arm holes shut on about half a dozen Slytherin's robes.

Actually I did the sewing

Shut it James. And stop writing in my book

You're just jealous because I'm better at sewing than you. Need I remind you what happened to your pin cushion?

Shut it. Anyway my stuffed animal is going to turn out better than your voodoo doll.

Is not.

Want to bet?

Oh you're on mate.

Unfortunately for him, Sirius had lost that bet. _'I wonder if I still have that'_

Sirius rummaged in the box for a few moments before he found it. It was the stuffed elephant he'd made in muggle studies during fourth year. It had caused them quite a bit of trouble.

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Flashback

"Hey Sirius"

"What"

"Give me that elephant you made" James said with a grin. Sirius handed it over and James took out his doll. It looked a lot like a certain Slytherin by the name of Severus Snape. But that was just a coincidence according to James. He put the elephant on the desk and made the doll skip toward it. Then he put the doll down and made the elephant jump up and down repeatedly on the doll. Both boys burst out laughing.

"Will you two pay attention please" McGonagall said, coming over. But the two of them were laughing too hard.

"Alright, out, both of you. And twenty points from Gryffindor." Sirius and James collected their things and left, still laughing.

End Flashback

Sirius sighed and looked at the elephant. It only had three legs and was made out of multicoloured scraps. It seemed to give him a pitying look with its button eyes. "Yes, life is cruel isn't it? You didn't turn out that well did you? Yes, another victim of Sirius Black. Don't look at me like that. I can't believe I'm talking to a stuffed elephant. Maybe I have lost it after all." Sirius sighed again and put the elephant down on the night table, where it wobbled on its three legs and fell over. But Sirius didn't see this because he'd already left the room, shutting the door behind him. He went downstairs to the kitchen and sat down at the table. Remus came in a few minutes later, carrying a large bag.

"Hey mate, what you thinking so hard about?"

"Oh nothing, it's not important. What's in the bag?"

"Cleaning supplies. This place is filthy. The Weasleys are coming in about a week. The kids can do some cleaning. We should get a head start though, make the place at least halfway liveable."

"Is Harry coming too?"

"No, Dumbledore seems to be happy leaving Harry with his relatives until later on."

Remus unloaded the bag and made some tea before sitting down across from his friend.

"Hey, do you remember the Halloween we blew up all those pumpkins? Fourth year wasn't it?"

"Yeah, we were entitled to have some fun with the giant pumpkins after Buehler made us carve them all by hand."

Sirius laughed, "Yeah, I'd never seen so much pumpkin guts. Took a week to get the smell out. Although carving the pumpkins was a small price to pay for the looks on the Slytherin's faces when we loaded their shoes with fireworks. That was priceless."

Remus laughed too. "Yeah it was." he said and got up. "it's getting late, I'm going to bed. Goodnight."

"night"

A/N hello again! Sorry if this chapter kinda sucks, I was having a bit of writer's block. And the floppy disk I use magically erased itself, taking the original chapter 4 with it. Damn. Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed, keep reading and reviewing and I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can. Comments, criticism, questions, flames and pretty much anything else you want to throw at me is welcome!

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	5. chapter 5: the Ides of July

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story, except for Ellie, who is mine.

Chapter 5

As the first rays of daylight streamed through the net curtains, Sirius found himself being prodded awake by Buckbeak. '_Damn you Buckbeak, oh heck, I can't stay mad at you. Hmm what's on for today? Weasleys are coming, cleaning, kicking Kreature…feeding Buckbeak, which I should do now'_

Sirius got up from the chair where he'd fallen asleep reading his journal the night before. He had been reading it to Buckbeak, who seemed to enjoy the story. He had gotten all the way through November and was just starting on December when he had fallen asleep. '_Damn chairs, note to self, never fall asleep sitting up ever again.'_ Sirius went over to the window, pulled out the sack of rats and began feeding Buckbeak. " You know, I've always liked hippogriffs. Ever since we studied them fourth year. Good year that was, fourth." Sirius said thoughtfully as he fed the hungry hippogriff. "Did I ever tell you about Ellie? She was great. Met her fourth year and all. Shall I tell you the story?" Buckbeak tossed his head and ate another rat. "Alright, well, James had just asked Lily out for the sixty-seventh time, thirteenth time that year. I kept track you see. Well anyway, that doesn't have much to do with it but I thought it was funny. It was the Hogsmeade weekend in April and James had Quidditch practice, Gryffindor won the championship that year, and every other year come to think of it. Anyway, and it had been full moon night before and Peter had detention, supposedly, he was really out with Cassie Stevens but I didn't know that at the time. So I ended up going to Hogsmeade alone, right. Anyway, it was poring like mad when I left to go so I conjured myself an umbrella and started off back to Hogwarts. While I was walking I saw Ellie walking alone just ahead of me, she looked so miserable and wet so I caught up to her and let her share my umbrella. We walked back to school, neither of us said anything. I was remembering how we had used to bother her all the time, you know taking her books and stuff, well James and I did that is, until Remus told us to lay off a bit end of third year. No idea why, it was so sudden. Now I'm babbling on again. So anyway, we got back to school and she turned to leave and I grabbed her arm to stop her, I don't know why, all I knew was that I wanted to apologise for what we'd done to her, but I just couldn't get the words out. I'll never forget her eyes, the look she gave me that day. It was right scary, I could see something in her eyes, but it wasn't fear, almost wished it was. It was sort of like, just get on with it, whatever it is you're going to do, just do it and leave me alone. I felt so awful. Next thing I knew, I'd kissed her. Then she left. Lily came after Ellie left; she'd seen the whole thing. We talked for a bit, see, she didn't hate me as much as she hated James. I asked Ellie to the dance a couple weeks later and we hit it off. I loved her so much. Oh hell, look at me, reliving the past to a Hippogriff, how sad is that? Maybe Azkaban really did unhinge me after all."

Sirius sighed, got up, put the sack of rats away and went back to his own room. '_What day is it today? Ack! Stupid calendar's twenty years old. Hasn't been changed since I was sixteen. Not surprised.' _Sirius grabbed a set of robes from the wardrobe and went to the bathroom to wash up.

Fifteen minutes later, Sirius was sitting at the table in the kitchen eating cold cereal. " What's it you call these again?" He asked Remus, who appeared to be looking for something.

"Fruit loops, now will you hurry up, the Weasley's will be here soon. Have you seen the oil for the lamp out in the entrance?" Remus said absentmindedly, still searching the cupboards for the oil.

"Try in the cupboard in the bathroom upstairs" Sirius said, staring into his bowl, memories floating in his mind like the soggy fruit loops in the milk. "What day is it today?"

"Tuesday"

"Yeah I know that, but what's the date? None of the calendars have been changed. The most recent one I can find is from 1983."

"Today's the fifteenth," Remus answered before disappearing up the stairs in his search for oil.

'The ides of July, beware the ides of July, no wait, March, dammit, always get that mixed up. Beware the ides of March. Now the ides of April are good times. What was it that happened the fifteenth of April? Oh yeah, first date with Ellie, what a disaster that was.'

FLASHBACK

"Eleanor! Wait!" Sirius called as he sprinted after Eleanor Carter, dodging students and drawing stares. Eleanor turned around to see who had been calling her name and Sirius skidded to a stop.

"Will you go to the dance with me?" Sirius blurted, becoming uncomfortably aware of the students who had watched his hundred-yard dash. Eleanor hesitated for a moment and silently nodded before turning and continuing to walk to the Great Hall, leaving Sirius standing there dumbstruck. It had been so easy, so simple. Normally it took a bit of awkward waiting and a lot of giggling to get a girl to go out with him. But there had been no giggling, just a simple nod. He realized he had yet to hear her speak.

"Hey mate, how'd it go?" said James, who had just turned up with the others.

"What'd she say?" Peter asked eagerly

"She didn't say anything--"

"Ooh, tough break" James said with what seemed to be sympathy, deceived by his large grin.

"--She just nodded."

"Nodded?"

"Yeah"

"No giggling? No smart remarks? No begging?"

"No, just a nod"

"Creepy, anyway, there's Lasagna on today for dinner."

"You have got to have the attention span of a goldfish James" Remus said with a laugh and they all went into the Hall for dinner.

The day of the dance, the excitement in the castle was almost palatable. Sirius had had to endure the sly comments of the others, with the exception of Remus. Finally seven o'clock had rolled around and everyone was gathered in front of the doors to the Great Hall, dressed in dress robes of every colour. Everyone was there, everyone except Eleanor.

"Have you seen Eleanor?" Sirius asked James while straining his neck to see over the crowd.

"She's probably here somewhere." Peter said, climbing a few steps on the nearest staircase, looking for Phoebe Adams, who he had managed to ask out at the last minute.

"Hey! What if she stood you up, Sirius!" James said with a laugh.

"Shut it James, there she is! No wait, no it's just Cassie."

James began to laugh even harder and the doors to the Hall opened. The students pored in, jabbering excitedly.

"You coming Sirius?" Remus asked

"Not just yet, I'm going to wait here for a few minutes, maybe she just doesn't like crowds."

"Alright then" said Remus. He went into the hall and Sirius was left alone in the entrance. He paced back and forth, waiting for close to half an hour before giving up and finally going into the Great Hall.

The house tables were gone, and smaller tables with a dozen chairs each were strewn about. He soon found the table where Remus and James were sitting. Peter was off dancing with Phoebe, who didn't seem to be having a good time. As Sirius passed the two of them, he could see her wincing as Peter stepped on her toes repeatedly.

"Didn't show?" Remus said quietly as Sirius slid into one of the empty seats surrounding the small table.

"No"

"Well, don't feel bad, James isn't having too good of luck either."

"Lily still won't talk to you Jamesie?"

"Shut it Sirius, and don't call me Jamesie. At least I wasn't stood up by Eleanor Carter." James said nastily.

"No, you were just blatantly rejected for the fifteenth time this year."

"Both of you, shut it," Remus said wearily, stopping the stream of insults, "and it's actually the sixteenth time, you're falling behind on your records Sirius. And I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason why Eleanor hasn't come. Now if you'll excuse me I need to relieve myself, knew I shouldn't have had all that tea at lunch." And with that he left the hall.

"Well, well, Black and Potter, both dateless. What's wrong, did everyone finally pick up on your tricks?" Said Lily, who had come over to the table looking rather pleased to see both of them alone.

"If you must know Lily, Sirius has been stood up and I only have eyes for one girl, you." James said, running his hand through his hair.

"Oh sod off Potter." And with that Lily left just as Peter and Phoebe came over to their table.

"Hey guys, having a good time?" Peter said with a large grin.

"Not really." James replied.

"Where's Remus?"

"Bathroom"

"I told him he shouldn't have drank so much tea. Want to go get something to drink Phoebe?"

"Sure" Phoebe said and the two of them left.

"She's coming," said Remus, who had just returned.

"What?" said Sirius, who hadn't been paying attention

"Eleanor, she's coming" Remus said exasperatedly.

"See James, I told you she didn't stand me up."

"Oh shove it, I'm going to go get a drink or something." James said and left the table.

"What is his probl---" Sirius started, but a girl in purple robes looking uncertainly around the room had caught his attention. Sirius waved and she jostled her way through the crowd of dancing students to the table.

"Sorry," Eleanor said quietly as she slid into James's vacated seat.

"No worries, you're just in time for dinner, they should be handing out menus soon." Sirius said, recovering from the shock at finally hearing Eleanor's voice. As soon as he had spoken menus appeared on the tables. "Speak of the devil."

There was an awkward silence, Eleanor stared at her plate and Remus was watching the others dance. Finally the silence was broken by Sirius.

"Eleanor,"

she looked up at him, as if surprised to have someone speak to her.

"Call me Ellie, please, Eleanor sounds like an old lady's name."

"Um okay, but uh, why didn't you come before?"

Ellie went red and looked back down at the plate. "When you asked me to go with you, I didn't think you meant it. I thought it was a prank or something."

"What?!"

"You know, Sirius Black, stud muffin extraordinaire, puller of pranks and breaker of hearts all over Hogwarts strikes again. I didn't want to be another one of your victims."

Sirius was struck dumb at this remark, but Remus was trying his hardest not to laugh.

"Stud muffin?"

Ellie smiled in spite of herself, the effect made her virtually unrecognizable.

"Sorry"

There was another awkward silence, which was finally broken by James returning to the table in an even worse mood than when he had left.

"Turned up then, have you?" he said rather rudely, sitting down next to Remus. Ellie blushed again and looked down at her plate. she seemed to be fiddling with an elastic band around her wrist, snapping it repeatedly. Sirius was glaring at James.

Peter and Phoebe returned and sat down. "Have you guys ordered yet?" Peter asked, oblivious to the fact that the tension between the others had become thick enough to cut.

"No, not yet," Sirius said, picking up his menu, the others did the same.

The orders were placed and the food appeared. Everyone sat eating in stressed silence before James interrupted the peace. "So does this one talk Sirius, or is she just here for decoration? Doesn't do much for the décor though." he said, nodding in the direction of Ellie. Everyone stopped eating.

"Shut it James," Remus said quietly.

"Let the girl speak for herself, that is, if she can." James said nastily.

"Come on Peter, um, let's go for a walk." Phoebe said quickly, sensing the imminent argument.

"Yeah, let's go."

Peter and Phoebe left, but James was just getting warmed up.

"Come on, speak up, what're you afraid of?"

"Lay off James," Sirius said.

"Once whatsherface here says something I will." James said with a smirk. Suddenly, Ellie got up from the table and slapped James as hard as she could.

"How about that for an answer, because it is no more than you deserve. I've had enough of people like you making my life hell with your snide remarks and stupid pranks. Why can no one just leave me alone!" Ellie said and ran off. The hall had gone quiet when Ellie had slapped James, now everyone was muttering quietly about what had just happened. James just sat there, shocked at what had just happened. Lily came over again and addressed James. "She's right you know, you did deserve that." she said with a smirk and walked away again.

Sirius too had been stunned at what had just happened. When he finally got over his surprise, he left for the common room, trying to find Ellie. But she was nowhere to be seen. He just sat in the dark common room, trying to absorb all that had happened that night. A couple hours later, the dance ended and everyone went back to their houses. Sirius went to the dormitory and had just finished putting on his pyjamas when James approached him. He had a red handprint on his face and looked quite ashamed.

"Listen mate, I'm sorry I ruined your night. I was just in a bad mood and I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to James."

"I know and I'll apologize to Ellie first thing in the morning."

END FLASHBACK

Sirius was brought out of his thoughts by the door slamming and his mother's portrait screaming. The Weasleys had come.

A/N wow that sure was a long one. Hope you like it. Don't forget to review please and keep reading!


	6. chapter 6: well Minister Lupin

A/N hello loyal readers! Thank you for sticking with me this far, and thanks to those who reviewed, you know who you are! Anyway, there is one thing I'd like to say before we start the next chapter. In the last chapter you may have noticed James being unreasonably nasty. It may have seemed out of character and uncalled for, but to me it makes sense. If the characters in my story are anything like the kids who go to my school, sudden unexpected behaviour is normal, believe me. Keep that in mind for this chapter as well as in the rest of the story. Thanks!

Disclaimer: I own nothing yadda yadda yadda

A week passed since the Weasleys arrived at Grimmauld Place and Sirius was so busy cleaning he didn't have time to think of the past and was so tired at the end of the day that he didn't read to Buckbeak. It felt strange to be in a house full of people after so long.

Sirius came down for breakfast on a particularly hot day to hear angry voices from the kitchen. '_Those two are going to wake up the portraits' _

"You are such a narrow minded git sometimes Ron!" Hermione yelled. Ron was about to retaliate when both of them realised Sirius was standing in the doorway.

"hey, don't quit on my account," he said, opening cupboards at random, looking for something to eat, "always enjoyed a good row myself, clears the air."

"uh, that's okay, we were finished anyway, and mum said to tell you to hurry up, we're starting on some of the bedrooms today and she wants everyone to help." Ron recited before both he and Hermione left the kitchen.

'_Whoo hoo, goodness knows I love cleaning! Ugh. Why Molly insisted on changing everything around in here is beyond me. No one can find anything anymore, not even her. Aha! Found the bread! What a weird place to put it, next to the sink. Now for some peanut butter.'_

"Is it safe to come in?" Remus asked, poking his head through the door, "have they stopped?"

"Yeah, its clear, just me. Have you seen the peanut butter?"

"I think it's in the cupboard next to the ice box. Those two fight more than Lily and James ever did."

"Yeah, well at least Lily and James had enough sense to stay out of each others way for a bit afterwards, not like you and Leanne."

"Hey, shut up! We all couldn't be as perfect as you and Ellie."

"WHAT! What are you on about, we fought plenty, just not where everyone could see it." Sirius said, sitting down at the table with his bread and peanut butter.

"Sure you did, and I'm the Minister of Magic."

"Well, minister Lupin, we did. Why do you think she wouldn't talk to me for months during fifth year?"

"Always wondered about that. Anyway, I'd better get going, my turn on duty today. See you later." and with that Remus left.

Sirius bit into his peanut butter covered bread and let his mind wander.

"Hey Ellie."

"Hi Sirius, how come you're up so early?"

"I'm usually up by now. You going home for Christmas?" Sirius said, spotting the trunk next to Ellie.

"Yeah." Ellie said flatly, looking suddenly uncomfortable.

"Sure don't sound very happy about it. Heck I'd kill to go home for Christmas."

"Not with my family you wouldn't. Anyway, why don't you go? Its not like you don't have a family, I'm sure they'd be happy to see you."

Sirius gave a short laugh. "I hate my family, and they're not exactly keen on me either. At least your parents love you. Mine are forever on my case for being in Gryffindor, it's not like I could help it."

That seemed to have touched a nerve with Ellie.

"You know what Sirius, you just go on thinking that you have it the worst out of everyone. One day you're going to realise that there is someone worse off than you! And when you do I hope I'm there to see it!"

She turned on her heel and dragged her trunk out of the common room, leaving Sirius standing alone, bewildered.

Christmas came and went and soon after students started coming back to school.

The night before term started again, Lily stopped Sirius on his way to bed.

"Have you seen Ellie?" She asked, looking worried.

"No, why?"

"Well, she said she'd be back yesterday, I'm starting to get worried."

"It's probably nothing. She probably lost track of time, or missed the train, or maybe the train that left today broke down and she won't be back until later tonight. Are you sure she's not here? She has a weird way of being unseen when she wants to."

"Well she's definitely not here now, her stuff's still gone. But maybe you're right. G'night Sirius."

"Night Lily," Sirius said and continued up the stairs to his dormitory.

But Ellie still wasn't back the next day, and Sirius was starting to run out of reasons why she wasn't there.

Sirius woke up early second day of term. He could hear voices as he descended the stairs to the common room. He paused halfway down to listen.

"That's the best I can do El, you should really see Madam Pomfrey" Sirius recognised the voice as Lily's.

"I've told you, I'm fine and I'm not going to the hospital wing. No one will notice." This voice belonged to Ellie.

Sirius continued down the stairs and reached the common room in time to see the hem of Ellie's robes disappear through the portrait hole. Lily, who was still in her pyjamas disappeared up the stairs to the girls' dormitory and Sirius went to the hall for breakfast.

The hall was nearly deserted. Ellie was sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table alone.

"Mind if I sit here?"

"Go ahead," Ellie mumbled through a mouthful of cereal.

Sirius sat down and grabbed a piece of toast off the nearest plate.

"Have a good holiday?"

Ellie shook her head and took another spoonful of cereal.

"Must have had at least a little fun, even I can have fun with my parents on occasion."

"No, it was horrible and I don't really want to talk about it. How was your Christmas?"

Sirius raised his eyebrows at Ellie and took another bite of toast.

"Not bad" he said, spewing crumbs all over the place, "sorry"

Ellie laughed and brushed the crumbs away before wincing slightly.

"You okay Ellie?" Sirius asked. Close-to Ellie looked rather pale and thinner than usual.

"I'm fine." Ellie said, getting up rather gingerly and picking up her bag, "see you later."

A couple minutes later James, Remus and Peter entered the hall; it was starting to fill now. James and the others sat down around Sirius and started to eat.

"I see Ellie's back. Doesn't look too happy though does she?" James said, taking a piece of toast.

"She didn't have a good holiday." Sirius replied.

"Neither did I, but I'm not all sad and whatnot, am I?" Peter said while loading his plate.

"Well you wouldn't would you, because you're a guy." said James, causing Remus to roll his eyes.

"No, I mean it. Girls blow stuff way out of proportion for no reason. Take Evans here for an example."

"What obnoxious, horribly wrong theory are you trying to prove this time Potter?" said Lily, who had stopped on the mention of her name on her way past the boys.

"Well like I was saying, Evans here is a perfect example. I play some pranks on people who truly deserve it and Evans won't go out with me. It's not like I just do it because I can. In fact, 56% of people deserved what they got. But Lily has gone and blown it out of proportion. It's the same with Ellie. She had a sort of bad holiday, but she's just angling for sympathy by exaggerating. Simple eh?"

"You have no idea what you're talking about Potter!" Lily said and stalked off.

"Don't worry Padfoot old buddy." James said, putting his arm around Sirius' shoulder, "it'll pass soon enough once she figures out she's not getting any sympathy. You just have to be cruel to be kind."

"Uh, I don't think I like that idea much Prongs,"

"Trust me Sirius, next time the subject comes up, tell her off. In fact I'll do it for you if you want."

"Uh James, ooh mut nut wunt to do thut, it'll just muk it wurse."

"What Remus? I can't understand you with your mouth full of banana."

Remus swallowed and repeated. "You might not want to do that, it'll just make things worse. I think Lily's right, just leave it."

"It'll be fine, trust me." James said, letting go of Sirius. Once he'd let go Sirius left the hall. He didn't like the sound of James's plan either. He hoped he would just forget about it. James had a habit of making plans and then forgetting about them later.

Unfortunately, James hadn't forgotten. This became apparent as they trudged back to the castle after Herbology that day.

"Hey Ellie! Have a good holiday?" James said as he and Sirius caught up with her.

"Not great, how 'bout you James? Did you have a good holiday?"

James didn't answer, but dropped back behind Ellie and said in an audible whisper, "and Lily says I'm conceited."

Ellie whipped around, looking angry. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I mean you can't seem to see beyond your own nose. You got to go home for the holidays, not all of us are so lucky."

The whole thing had taken Sirius by surprise. This was not how he had pictured it at all.

"You think I wanted to go home?"

"Then why didn't you just stay here?" Sirius said quietly.

"Well if you must know, my mom threw me out when I got my Hogwarts letter. She beat me unconscious and threw me out of the house with nothing. The Knight Bus picked me up. Mr. Prewett was driving and took me home with him; I've been living in the Prewett's attic since. Last month my mom sent me a letter telling me that if I didn't come home for Christmas she was going to burn all my stuff. There were some things I still wanted so I went back. Turns out her new fiancé is a nasty bastard who hates magic more than she does." Ellie had tears in her eyes and her voice cracked on the last few words.

"Yeah, okay, so there's tension in your family," James said as if he hadn't heard a word she'd said, "who doesn't?"

"Yeah well your parents don't beat you for something you have no control over do they?"

She turned around and ploughed through the snow back to the castle. Lily passed by and seeing their dumbstruck expressions guessed what had happened.

"Gee James, that sure went well. Your theory is foolproof." she said sarcastically and walked off shaking her head.

Sirius felt awful as he trudged back to the castle for dinner. He intended to apologise the next time he saw Ellie, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Over the next months he tried to corner her, to apologise, but she was avoiding him. Finally he let himself believe it was over. He went out with other girls and tried to forget Ellie. But as whoever he was out with drabbled on about who was going out with whom, Sirius found himself missing Ellie. He couldn't explain it; all he knew was that he'd never felt the same way about any other girl.

"Sirius" Molly said, bringing Sirius out of his thoughts, "do you know what happened to that soap I bought?"

"In the cupboard under the sink"

A/N okie dokie, that's another chapter done! GIANT THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS REVIEWED!!! To those who haven't reviewed, please do. Thanks!


	7. chapter 7: you cheeky moose

A/n hello my minions! There is just one thing I want to say before we start the next chapter. A reference is made to a man named Pierre Pettigrew. He is a real person in the government of Canada. Look him up on Google sometime, the resemblance, in my opinion, is uncanny.

Chapter 7

"Ah, Severus, you've made it." Dumbledore said as Snape entered the room.

"I would have arrived earlier, but I had important business to attend to." he said, shooting Sirius a nasty look.

"Well now you're here, do you have anything to report?"

'Oh I bet he has'

"Yes I do. The Dark Lord is expanding his operations to Canada. He has planted a spy in the government there. Minister of Foreign affairs. It is the ideal person to have as a spy. But there is one drawback." Snape held up a large Muggle photo of a man with grey hair, small blue eyes and a pointed nose. "Three guesses as to which of his Death Eaters that is."

'Even a moron wouldn't need all three'

"Peter?" Lupin said incredulously

"Yes, but it gets better. The minister who Peter is impersonating is named Pierre Pettigrew."

'Old Voldy is loosing his touch. Especially as Pierre is Peter in French'

Snape went on and on and soon Sirius lost thread of the conversation. There had been something nagging in the back of his mind all day.

'_What is it I'm forgetting? Today is July twenty-fifth. What is so significant? Harry's birthday is on the thirty-first; Ellie's was the fifth. Ohhhhhhhh Lily and James got married on the twenty-fifth. Duh'_

"Whatever you do, don't eat the cake in the box in the fridge."

"Ellie, for the millionth time, we will not eat the wedding cake! Stop worrying."

Ellie picked up her bag and dress before disapparating with a loud crack. She was going to stay with Lily tonight. James and Remus were staying over with him. A few minutes after Ellie left, two men apparated into the living room.

"Hey James, haven't changed your mind, have you mate?"

"Don't give him ideas Sirius, it was all I could do to get him to come over here." Remus said, throwing his suit over the back of the nearest chair. To save money James, Peter, Sirius and Remus had turned the suits they'd worn to the disco black.

"well, don't worry, I'm sure Lily'll be driving Ellie nuts, she's such a worrier.

The next day was hot and sunny. James had taken up pacing through the living room over and over. Finally Remus asked him to stop and he flopped onto the couch, staring blankly at the wall.

After a quick lunch (James had refused to eat) the three men changed into their suits. Sirius had the rings in his hand and was about to put them in his pocket when he spotted an envelope on the kitchen counter. He put the rings down and picked up the envelope. Inside was a note and two small tablets. The note read;

Sirius, give James the pills at one; they'll keep him from getting carsick. I'll be round about quarter past. Good luck.

Xoxo

Ellie

P.S. don't eat the cake!

"What's that?" Remus asked, trying to read over Sirius's shoulder.

"Just Ellie not trusting us to keep our hands off the cake."

"You mean there's been cake here all this time?" Remus said with mock surprise, "anyway, do you know how to tie a tie?"

"No, I was hoping you did."

"Uh uh, let's hope James does."

"Hope I what?"

"Do you know how to tie a tie?"

"No, I thought you did."

"Shit! Let's just hope Ellie does."

"There's always Peter"

James snorted, "and I can teach dragons to sing."

"Hey, that could come in handy. Anyway that reminds me, eat these."

"What are they?"

"Dunno, Ellie said they'd keep you from getting sick."

"Great, did she leave any more?"

"Did who leave any more what?" Ellie said.

"You're early." Sirius commented, "You look nice though"

And she did look nice. She was wearing a long, deep sky blue dress and her hair had been curled and pinned away from her face. The only thing that didn't match was her black high tops.

"Thanks. Lily threw me out, said I was making her nervous. As if. You lot ready to go?"

"Just about, do you know how to tie a tie?"

"None of you know how to tie a tie? How did you make it through Hogwarts?"

"My mum tied all mine before I left each year. Just had to slip it on." Remus said, the other two nodded. Ellie just laughed and tied their ties.

"Here, open up the car, I'll be along in a minute, forgot my dress shoes." she said, tossing the keys to Sirius.

The three men piled into the back of the midnight blue Cadillac. A few minutes later Ellie got in, threw her bag and a pair of blue high heels into the passenger seat and started the car. She turned on the radio and pulled out of the driveway.

It took them almost half an hour to reach the church. The motorway was crowded with families driving to the beach on the hot Saturday. When they reached the church they sought out refuge from the heat in the basement. Ellie stood on a chair so as to see out the small window.

"You know, its not too late to bail. You'd fit through one of those windows." Remus said, munching on a cookie he'd snitched from one of the plates lined up on the table near the door. These were going to be set outside after the ceremony for the guests to eat.

"Yeah, or you could hide in that hideous silk plant and we could carry you out" Sirius said, laughing. James smiled and shook his head, "you guys aren't supposed to be egging me on to bail."

"We're not?" Sirius and Remus said pretending to be surprised.

"They're here" Ellie said, jumping off the chair and putting her shoes on, "good luck" she gave both James and Sirius a quick kiss, then Remus, who had asked for one in a tone of mock heartbreak, and hurried off to meet the bride and her entourage.

Just after Ellie left, Mrs. Potter came down to tell them to go up to the church.

From his spot at the altar, Sirius could see that the church was almost filled to capacity with chattering people. Moments later, organ music started and everyone quietened. Ellie came down the isle carrying a bouquet of brightly colored flowers. James's niece was meant to be flower girl, but Voldemort had killed his sister's entire family three months previously.

Ellie took her place at the altar between Sirius and Remus. Then the music changed to a wedding march and Lily came down the isle arm in arm with her father. Sirius felt a small nudge and Ellie slipped something into his hand.

The rings.

"You left them on the counter." Ellie muttered, barely moving her lips.

Lily met James at the altar and the music stopped. Dumbledore started the ceremony and Sirius felt himself loosing focus on what he was saying. It was almost unbearably hot in the church and the fans had been turned off for the ceremony. He looked around at the congregation. The guests had been seated according to whose family they were with. Lily's family on the left, James's on the right. It then struck him how small the congregation would be if he and Ellie got married. Neither of them had family who would come, except Andromeda's family and the Weasleys with their five kids. Ellie's brother might come and maybe her real father would come over from Canada. And probably her friend Jeremy would be there. He could just imagine everyone arranged as they had been here. Ellie's brother in a bench alone with Jeremy on one side and the Weasleys and Andromeda's family on the other. Hagrid would probably come if they invited him; he was here today, sitting at the back.

Sirius was so lost in his own thoughts that he was quite startled when Dumbledore asked him for the rings. Dumbledore winked as he handed over the rings, feeling rather foolish for drifting off.

The vows were exchanged and Dumbledore pronounced them husband and wife. Everyone clapped and the organ music started again as Lily and James signed the marriage certificate, followed by Ellie and Remus, who were to be their witnesses. Once the certificates were signed they all made their way out of the church, showered by rice being thrown by the guests. It was even hotter outside than in the church. While everyone was enjoying the cookies and juice and chattering, Dumbledore approached Sirius.

"Ah Mr. Black. My apologies for rambling on, I'm sure you weren't the only one who drifted off."

"Oh man, I'm sorry Dumbledore, it was the heat, honestly. One could never tire of hearing you speak."

"That's quite alright. I was close to falling asleep myself!" They both laughed and Dumbledore left. Slowly the other guests were leaving and Peter set up his camera. He was going to take the pictures for the wedding instead of hiring a photographer.

"Everyone gather round!" Lily and James called and everyone crowded around the newly married couple.

"Smile!" Peter said, snapping picture after picture. Once the group pictures were finished everyone scattered, mostly everyone went to the food table. Lily and James had made a list of people for Peter to take pictures of and he was busy cornering them, getting as many in a frame as possible. He caught up with Sirius just as he was looking for Ellie so they could leave. "You're the last one," Peter said with obvious relief, "smile."

Sirius grinned and Peter snapped the picture. "One more" he said.

"Hold on" Sirius grabbed Ellie, who had been walking past. He pulled her to where Peter was waiting with the camera. "But I don't want to be in the pictures." she protested.

"Too bad" he spun her around and they both beamed at the camera for a moment before Ellie pointed at the sky. "Look at that huge cloud, looks like rain." She said. Sirius looked over and while he was distracted Ellie pulled away from him and ran off. He laughed and went after her. "You cheeky moose, come back!" She just laughed and got into the car. Then there was a loud crack and the sky opened up, poring rain. Everyone ran for shelter and Sirius, Remus and Peter piled into Ellie's car. No sooner had they shut the doors than Ellie disappeared with a loud pop. A couple minutes later she reappeared in the driver's seat holding a large box. "Can't forget the cake," she said, putting the box on the passenger seat and starting the car.

It didn't take too long to get to the hotel where the reception was to be held. Ellie went off to the banquet hall to drop off the cake and Sirius quickly located a bathroom and relieved himself. He'd had to go since they'd left for the church. When he got back he found Remus and Ellie asleep on the couch in the foyer. He sat down in the chair next to the couch and picked up the Muggle paper. It turned out to be quite a fascinating read. Almost an hour later, Remus woke up.

"What time is it?"

"Quarter past five."

"Forty-five minutes till dinner, drat. I'm hungry."

"Well, there's always the coffee shop. They might have muffins or something."

"Muffins! I'm there! Think we should wake her up?" Remus nodded at Ellie, who was still fast asleep.

"Yeah, s'pose so." Sirius said, prodding her, "time to get up El."

"Time is it?"

"Quarter past five"

Ellie yawned and stretched, "remind me to tell James to make Lily get rid of that plaid couch of hers when she moves in with him. I pity the fool who has to sleep on that next. Between that couch and Lily's going on about whether she's made the right decision or not, I got next to no sleep last night." she yawned again and got up.

"We're going to the coffee shop. Wanna come?"

"Yeah, I'll be along in a minute." Ellie said and disappeared into the ladies room.

Finally six o'clock rolled around and the banquet hall began to fill with guests. Sirius and Ellie found themselves seated at the long table in the front of the room with Remus, Peter, Mr and Mrs. Potter and The Evans'. There were two empty chairs for Lily and James. The hall had been decorated with gold and silver balloons and the mirrored walls reflected the dim lights. The twenty or so smaller tables had white tablecloths and were set for nine or ten people each, with a large arrangement of flowers in the centre. There was a long table at the back where the guests deposited their gifts for the bride and groom and there were two more similar tables on the dance floor. These tables were laden with tureens of food, heated by small gas burners. Sirius looked up and noticed that the ceiling had been mirrored too. Ellie seemed mesmerized by the mirrored ceiling. "This is so weird" she muttered. Personally he had to agree, rooms were just not meant to have that many mirrors. It felt like there was always someone watching.

After what seemed like forever Lily and James arrived and they were allowed to fill their plates with food. Bottles of wine were being set out on the tables.

"This wine is awful," Remus said, taking a sip of the red wine. "Lets hope the white is better," he took a sip and pulled a face.

"That bad?" Sirius asked, poring Remus some water. Remus nodded and gulped down the water.

"How can you drink that crap El?"

Ellie just laughed, "give me your glass." Remus handed it over and Ellie pored more wine into it before taking the glass under the table and taking out her wand. She tapped the glass twice and gave it back to him.

"What did you do?" Sirius asked her.

"Just drink it"

Remus took a sip out of the glass of what still looked like wine.

"Tastes like chocolate milk. Where did you learn how to do that?"

Ellie just smiled "found it in a book"

Once everyone was finished eating, it was time for Sirius to make his speech. He got up and went over to the lectern next to the head table. Everyone quietened. Sirius cleared his throat.

"Uh hi everyone. I'm not too good with speeches so just bear with me here. For those of you who don't know, I'm Sirius Black. James has been my best friend since our first year of school. We spent many days wreaking havoc on the school, once we'd stopped getting lost, that is. But it's not much fun with just two, and so Remus and Peter joined our little mob. A couple of years later James started to fall for a certain redhead in our year. The Quiddich star, prankster extraordinaire was hopelessly taken with Lily and we all had to hear about it ad nauseam. There was only one problem, Lily hated James. He would ask her out three or four times a week and she'd shut him down. Sometimes in quite a harsh fashion. But finally, in seventh year, after a good few slaps round the face, James, and I'm quoting Lily here, deflated his overly large head. And that's how they got together. Uh, I think that's all so I'll shut up now before you all fall asleep. To Lily and James." With the last words everyone raised their glasses and clinked them together. Sirius sat down and everyone seemed to be waiting for something. Finally Lily leaned over and whispered in Ellie's ear. Her eyes got big and she jumped up from her chair and went over to the lectern, looking rather embarrassed.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe I forgot about my speech. Obviously I didn't write one so I'll try and keep my rambling short, for all our sakes. Um, well, I can't say I've known Lily as long as Sirius has known James, but I do know James is a lucky guy. I first met Lily in fourth year, uh, she'd had a bit of trouble with her other friends and they'd pretty much shunned her from their group. She never told me why, but it didn't really matter, I had my first friend since changing schools. James would ask her out as Sirius said, several times a week. Lily would say no, and then I'd hear about it later. The thing James doesn't know is that if he'd handled the rejection gracefully, namely not taking out his frustration on other students, Lily probably would have gone out with him long before they did. You see, that's how Lily liked to pick her guys. They would ask her out, she'd say no and then she'd see how he reacted. If he took it well and respected her decision, she would go out with them. If they took it badly and took out their anger on other people, like James did, she would be nasty to them. But eventually James worked this out for himself. And now here we are. That's all I really have to say, so here's to a great story to tell their kids, how mummy and daddy hated each other." Everyone raised their glasses again. Ellie sat down. A few more people made speeches and then the cake was brought out. Lily and James cut it and pieces were distributed to the guests.

The cake had been beautifully decorated with sugar flowers in bright colors with a little figure of a bride and groom on top. It had five layers, one for each of the marauders, Ellie had explained. One layer of chocolate for Remus, one layer of butter pecan for Sirius, one layer of carrot cake for Peter and a layer of plain white cake for James. The top layer was fruitcake so that it could be kept and eaten on their first anniversary.

When the cake was gone, the man they'd hired to play music arrived and Lily and James enjoyed their first dance. The supper tables had been cleared off the small dance floor.

" I thought you said Blacks don't dance" Ellie said cheekily while she danced with Sirius.

"We can make exceptions."

"What do you think Sirius?"

"Huh? Oh I agree with Kinglsley."

"Alright, it's settled then, if no one has anything more to say, this meeting is over."


	8. chapter 8: Just Like the Littlest Hobo

A/n sorry this one took so long, things have been hectic lately, school, yearbook, friends. There's just no time after school anymore. And I finally got my learner's license. Driving is so totally not all its cracked up to be.

Chapter 8

Just Like the Littlest Hobo

"Lunch" Mrs. Weasley called as she came in with a tray of sandwiches. Sirius heaved a sigh and took one last glance at the tapestry he and Harry had been studying. He grabbed a sandwich and sat down, thinking about the day he had left home

"Your cousin Nacissa is getting married next month," Mrs. Black said as they all sat down to have their dinner.

"To whom?" Mr. Black asked

"Lucius Malfoy."

Sirius rolled his eyes, another arranged marriage compliments of their messed up pureblood family. Needless to say he didn't want to go.

"Do I have to go mum?" Sirius asked. Mrs. Black set down her fork.

"Yes, and you'll keep a civil while you're there too."

This time it was Sirius's turn to put down his fork. He'd had enough.

"For heaven's sake mum! I'm almost sixteen! When are you going to stop dragging me to these stupid family events? It's always clear I'm not wanted there so why bother? I hate the lot of them."

"Now that's enough Sirius," Mr. Black said sharply, "did it ever occur to you to try and talk to the rest of the family? I think you need to take a leaf out of Regulus' book and--"

"Oh shut up!" Sirius interrupted, leaping from his chair. This was the last straw. "I've had enough of your crap! Regulus this and Regulus that. Perfect little Regulus. Well you three can go to the wedding and be the perfect little pureblood family, but leave me out. In fact you can leave me out of the rest of the summer as well. I'm leaving!" He threw his napkin down and charged out of the house, anger pulsing through him. He had no idea where he would go, but he kept walking anyway. After almost half an hour Sirius sat down on a park bench to rest. What was he going to do? He reached into his pockets looking for money to take the Knight Bus, but all he had was the note James had sent two days before telling him that he was going off to Blackpool for a few days. He would be back the day after tomorrow. Now what? Sirius tried hard to think. James was gone, Remus lived in Manchester, and going to stay with Peter just wasn't an option. He wasn't that desperate. To top it all off Sirius realised that he hadn't brought his trunk with him either. After a few more minutes he got up and started towards The Leaky Cauldron. If he hurried he could go to Gringotts before it closed and get some money. Or he could get a room and then pay Tom back in the morning.

A good hour later a very tired Sirius opened the door to The Leaky Cauldron and stepped in. He hurried through the crowd of witches and wizards, most of who were leaving after having their supper, and entered into Diagon Alley. Sirius checked his watch; six-thirty. Gringotts would be closed. He turned around and went back into the pub while he figured out what he would say to Tom.

Sirius plunked himself down on a stool in front of the bar. Just next to him, slumped over the other side of the bar, was someone sleeping. No one else was around. He prodded the sleeping figure a couple of times but whoever it was didn't wake up. Just then Tom appeared

"Carter! Carter! Wake up!" he said loudly, shaking the sleeping figure. It turned out the sleeping person had been Ellie and she jumped when Tom had yelled.

"I'm sorry, I just put my head down for a minute and the next thing I know I'm asleep. I'm so sorry."

"You told me when you took this job that it wouldn't be a problem"

"It's not, I'm just tired. Please don't sack me, I need this job. My hours at Flourish and Blotts were cut and this is the only other job I could get. I'm sorry"

"Don't worry about it. Just don't do it again okay? When you're finished serving Mr. Black here you can go home. I expect you here first thing in the morning."

Tom left and an idea struck Sirius.

"Ellie?"

She turned around

"What can I do for you?"

"I really hate to ask, but you see I ran away from home and--"

"You need a place to stay. You can stay with me for a few days as long as you don't order anything so we can leave now." She smiled and lowered her voice "I hate this job"

Sirius laughed. "Yeah, let's go. Thanks."

"No problem," she said as she hung up her apron. "Have you ever ridden in a car?"

"No,"

"Want to?"

"Sure, but where would we get a car? And neither of us can drive. We're not seventeen yet."

"That's what you think." she said and pulled a card out of her bag. It was a Muggle driver's licence.

"How did you get that?"

"Nicked my mom's at Christmas and used magic to change it to be in my name. Even says here that I'm seventeen. Mom deserved to have it stolen. I call it compensation."

"Okay, but we need a car."

"I've got that taken care of too," she said as they walked into a nearby parking complex, "bought this one off Arthur Weasley. He's a nice bloke, do you know him?"

They stopped in front of a midnight blue Cadillac. "Yeah, he's my cousin."

Ellie opened the car doors and they both got in. She put the key in the ignition, but it didn't seem to want to start.

"Stupid piece of crap" she said angrily, kicking the pedals.

"That's not very nice, I'm definitely not going to start now." a voice said.

"Come on!"

"No."

"Who are you talking to?" Sirius broke in.

"The car, Arthur put some sort of charm on it. It's got a will of it's own."

Sirius couldn't help but laugh. It seemed just the sort of thing Arthur would do.

"We're going to have to take the underground. Dammit."

The two of them got out of the car and walked down to the subway station where they just caught the train. Several stops later they got off and started walking. The sun was setting, casting a golden hue on the deserted street.

Suddenly someone behind them yelled "Eleanor you gobby mooke!" The person had a Scottish accent. Ellie turned around and her face lit up.

"Jeremy!" she shouted happily and hugged the tall boy behind her, who spun her around.

"I haven't seen you for ages." Ellie said, "Sirius, this is Jeremy, my best friend. Jeremy, this is Sirius, a friend from school."

"Alright?" Jeremy said, shaking Sirius' hand. Jeremy was almost the same height as Sirius, with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Nice to meet you" Sirius replied.

"Have you had dinner yet Jeremy?" Ellie asked, "we were just about to eat, you're welcome to join us."

"Alright then, where are you living now?"

"Just up there," Ellie pointed to the upper story of the house across the street.

She led the two boys across the street to the house and up the fire escape to the very top window.

"Can't you get in from the inside?" Sirius asked as Ellie pushed the window open.

"No, the door to the attic's been sealed. This is the only way in."

She threw her bag in and folded herself in through the window. Jeremy went next, followed by Sirius. He was amazed at what he saw. The slanted ceiling and walls of the attic had been painted a deep blue and was covered with drawings of what seemed like everything, plants, animals both magical and Muggle, buildings and people, one of which he recognized as himself.

"Wow El, I knew you liked to draw, but this is nuts." Jeremy said, taking it all in. Once Sirius had torn his eyes away from the walls, he regarded the rest of the living space. It was all hardwood floors, with a small icebox and stove in one corner, a green leather chair, a television and a hammock in another, and a door, which presumably lead to a loo. The rest of the space was crammed with musty cardboard boxes and trunks, creating a labyrinth of paths between them to walk about.

Ellie began to rummage about in the cupboards and roughly half an hour later the three of them were seated around the television eating macaroni and sausage, Ellie in her hammock, Jeremy in the chair and Sirius sat on one of the many trunks.

Conversation was light and pleasant. Mostly Ellie and Jeremy talked about the pranks he was pulling at school, which included Jeremy filling one of the teacher's cars with Styrofoam packing pellets, switching other student's locks on the lockers and filling shoes with peanut butter. But when Ellie reached over to take his plate when dinner was over he seized her wrist and the mood changed. "I thought you said you'd quit that shit." He said quietly, running his thumb over a burn on her hand.

"I did, I burnt my hand at work last week, I didn't do it myself if that's what you're thinking!" she shot back and pulled away.

"I just worry about you sometimes, El. After Christmas…" he trailed off.

"I'm okay, you don't need to worry Jeremy, and it's not going to happen again, I've made sure of that. I'm not going back." She said as she disappeared behind a stack of boxes and putting the plates in the sink. When she came back the television was turned on and they spent the rest of the night watching various programs. Ellie fell asleep in the hammock and Jeremy left, leaving Sirius alone with the television. He'd lost thread of what was happening on the program so he turned it off and settled into the green chair, falling asleep moments later. It had been a long day.

The next morning Sirius woke to the sound of some very noisy birds. It was early and he could just make out the silhouette of someone moving around in the dim golden light. He could hear the water running in the bathroom and a few minutes later Ellie slipped silently out the window. Sirius had a crick in his neck and couldn't get back to sleep, so he got up and went into the "kitchen" to find something to eat. There wasn't an awful lot there, but he did manage to find some cereal and milk, and he ate it while he watched the television.

It was a great thing, television. Thirteen choices, thirteen different things to watch. In fact, that's what Sirius spent the day doing, changing from one channel to the other, and sometimes watching four or five things simultaneously until it gave him a headache. By six that evening he still hadn't made up his mind whether he like Sesame Street or the cooking show with Julia Child better. It came as quite a shock when the news came on and Ellie appeared through the window. He'd lost track of time.

"Had a good time?" she said. She was carrying a flat box in one hand and a bottle of milk in the other.

"Oh yeah, you Muggles do have something here with this, what was it you called it, fellytision."

"Television." she corrected him and set the box and the milk down. Sirius suddenly realised he was hungry as Ellie sat down on the floor next to him with a slice of pizza.

"Help yourself," she said when she noticed Sirius eyeing her slice.

"Oooh I ate too much" Sirius moaned half an hour later. He'd eaten six slices.

Ellie laughed, "I'm sorry for avoiding you all this time"

"You have nothing to be sorry for, I'm sorry for being such a prat at Christmas."

"Well I'm sorry my car wouldn't start yesterday"

Sirius laughed, now she was just being silly.

"Well I'm sorry my cousin sold it to you. It's all my fault." he said in mock shame.

"Well I'm sorry you're sorry. We're a right pair of sorry people aren't we?" Ellie said, laughing.

"Damn right. Thanks for letting me stay here, I'll be gone tomorrow."

"Don't mention it." she replied with a yawn and put her head on Sirius's shoulder. He put his arm around her shoulders and within minutes they were both asleep.

Sirius hauled himself out of the memory with a sigh. What he wouldn't give to go back to that day, or any other time before Azkaban.


	9. Chapter 9: There and Back

A/N I'd like to apologise to all both of you who have read this story. I just sort of lost interest in it. I just realised today it's been almost a year since I updated. For right now, I'm going to post this chapter, the last one. Hopefully, when Half Blood Prince comes out, I will be inspired to finish this story properly. I have a whole bunch written already, but my writing style has changed immensely since I started, and the entire story needs an overhaul.

So, enjoy this chapter, remembering it is the last one in the story.

Sirius lay awake in bed. It was too early to get up. He couldn't see much point in doing so even if it weren't. He wished things were the way they had been, before everyone had gone and died. _'It's not their fault.' _

School would just about be over; maybe Harry would be able to come stay for a while this summer. '_Fat chance'_

He rolled out of bed. So what if it was too early, he couldn't lie around doing nothing all day. _'I'll get up and do nothing instead.' _

He stumbled down the stairs and past the house-elf heads to the kitchen. He was mildly surprised to see Remus already at the table. Sirius made himself some coffee and sat down at the table.

"Good morning" Remus said.

"Is not." Sirius let his head fall onto the table. He was just so sick of this, being in the house all day, every day.

"Remus, do you miss the way things used to be?"

"Are you drunk Sirius?"

"No, just answer me," Sirius picked his head up from off the table.

"I suppose I miss it. Don't really think about it much, there's no point. We can't go back."

"You know, I've been meaning to ask you, how much has Hogwarts changed since we were there?"

"You know, they still don't have dances any more because of what we did. Well, what you and James did."

"It was worth it, seeing all those vegetables playing quiddich in the Hall. There was butter everywhere." Sirius recalled happily. "Which team won?"

"The baked potatoes. It was a very close game." Remus laughed.

"It was a very short game, you mean."

"That too. You might have gotten away with it if it weren't for the fireworks."

"Hey, a game well played deserves a celebration, whether the players be human or vegetable."

Remus just shook his head while they both laughed. Just then an owl came in carrying a letter. It dropped it in front of Remus, who picked it up and read it quickly. He sighed.

"I've got to go."

The happiness Sirius had felt moments before died.

"Yeah, alright."

"I'll be back soon." Remus said, getting up from the table.

"Whatever." Sirius took another sip of coffee. Remus disapparated, leaving Sirius alone in the kitchen. A sudden anger overtook him and he threw his coffee at the wall, the mug shattering into a hundred pieces. "Fuck you Peter, FUCK YOU!" he cursed, putting his head on the table again. This wasn't fair, it just wasn't fair.

Remus did not return, putting Sirius in an even worse mood. Late in the afternoon, he went upstairs to find that Buckbeak was injured. As he was tending to him, Sirius could have sworn he heard Kreacher talking to someone downstairs. Once he had finished, he went down.

"Whom were you talking to just now?" he demanded of the elf.

"No one sir, it was wrong fireplace sir. The young man must not have spoken clearly."

Sirius did not believe him, but it was no use to argue. Perhaps he had just been talking to himself. Still puzzled, Sirius went into the kitchen to make himself some supper. He was just about to sit down when a voice came from the fireplace.

"Black, are you there?"

Sirius dropped to his knees in front of the fireplace, only to see Snape looking back at him.

"What do you want?"

"I never thought I'd say this, but to see if you're still alive." Snape sneered.

"And why would I not be?"

"I just talked to Potter, who was convinced that you were dying in the Department of Mysteries."

"What!"

"I believe he's gone to take Dolores Umbridge out to the forest before setting off for a rescue mission. I shall try to stop him before he goes."

Snape's head disappeared from the fireplace. Sirius's heart was pounding in his ears. He hoped Snape would be able to stop Harry before he did anything daft. Suddenly, he found he wasn't hungry any more, and took to pacing the kitchen instead. A quarter of an hour later, Moody, Remus, Kingsley and Tonks came in. Before Sirius could tell them what had happened, Snape's head appeared once again.

"Potter's gone off to the ministry, I'm almost sure of it."

"We need to go." Moody said, and turned to go out again. Sirius made to follow the others.

"Black, it would be best if you stayed here, you can tell Dumbledore when he comes."

"I'm going."

"Sirius, he's right," Remus said, "stay here and fill Dumbledore in."

Before he could object, the others had left. Panic and anger overwhelmed him. Harry was in danger, and what was he supposed to do? Stay inside. He couldn't do that. He just couldn't.

"Kreacher!" he called.

"Yes master,"

"When Dumbledore arrives, you will tell him that Harry Potter has gone to Level Nine and we've all gone to get him. Alright?" He said very slowly, so as to get through to the elf.

"Yes sir, Kreacher will tell Dumbledore."

Sirius, heart pounding, left the house and disapparated.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Remus asked in a whisper as Sirius joined them in the round hall. Moody was considering each door, trying to decide which was the right one.

"Same thing you are."

"Snape said to stay put."

"Don't worry about it. There's someone at headquarters to tell Dumbledore."

"Who?"

"Kreacher"

"Are you mad!"

At that moment, Moody had chosen a door and they entered into a large, circular room with an arch in the very centre. Sirius had seen this arch before, in a drawing, where he had gotten the drawing, he could not remember. But that didn't matter now. Inside the chamber was Harry and a round-faced boy he recognized as Neville Longbottom, amongst a dozen or so Death Eaters.

Once they realised they were there, a battle broke out. Sirius felt back in his element. If he hadn't been so worried about Harry, he would have thoroughly enjoyed it.

"I want you to get out of here," he said, after Harry had saved him from being hit by a rather nasty curse by Dolohov. "Harry, take the prophecy, grab Neville and run."

Tonks fell, and Sirius went to take care of Bellatrix. As they duelled, they came dangerously close to the arch.

"Come on, you can do better than that!" he taunted her, suddenly aware that everyone else had stopped fighting.

In his brief lapse of concentration, Bella hit him with a full body bind. Too surprised to speak, he fell through the arch and hit the ground on the other side.

'_What the hell is this?'_

"Hello," an aged wizard said, coming around a desk and releasing him from the curse, "this certainly is a different approach."

"Thanks," Sirius said and got up. The wizard had gone back behind the desk.

"Here you go," the wizard handed him a small, shallow bowl, reminiscent of a pensieve.

"But-" Sirius started, but the wizard went out a door. Sirius turned around to see fifty or so witches and wizards sitting in chairs. He took his bowl and sat down next to a witch with long, blonde hair and large eyes.

"Hello," she said, shaking Sirius's hand, "I'm Petra Lovegood."

"Sirius Black." he replied. He wished someone would tell him what was going on. "Uh, I don't mean to be rude, but what is this place?"

Petra laughed and Sirius continued to look at her. He couldn't see anything funny about this at all.

"You mean you really don't know?" she said, after a moment.

"Er, no."

"You have got to be the first person I've seen who ended up here by accident."

Sirius just stared blankly at her.

"There are only two kinds of people back here, inventors and criminals. I would have thought you were the latter."

"I don't understand."

"Ages ago, this arch was built as a way for wizards to visit with the dead. It provides sort of an Antechamber, a gateway into the afterworld. Problem is, no one's ever been able to get back once they've gone through. So many wizards have tried too. For a while, they started pushing prisoners through. I was the last one to develop a way back. But as you can see, it didn't work. So I have to wait here with everyone else."

"What's with these bowls?"

"It's a way to see what's happening to those who we left behind." Mrs. Lovegood said sadly.

Sirius looked down into his bowl. Harry was in the Atrium now, and Fudge was standing there looking like a fool. Sirius smiled.

'_He's finally figured it out.'_

Dumbledore gave Harry a portkey and he disappeared from view. Sirius looked up and around the room. Other than the desk and chairs, the room was empty. On one wall was a door.

"Does that go where I think it goes?" he asked Mrs. Lovegood.

"Yes,"

Unable to resist, Sirius got up and went to the door. He hesitated for a moment before opening it. What would he say? He took a deep breath and walked through the door. He found himself back in London, and for a moment, thought that he had walked straight out of the ministry.

It was growing dark, and Sirius looked around, trying to decide where to go. He began to walk, and after a long while, reached the house he had been looking for. The last time he had seen it, it had been in ruins. It was not a large house, just big enough for a small family. It was white, with brilliant purple trim. He went to the door, turned the knob, and went in.

"Who's there?" a man's voice called from another room. Sirius could hear his footsteps and a moment later, James Potter appeared. When he saw Sirius there, he grinned.

"Bloody hell Sirius, don't you ever knock?"

Sirius grinned too. "You know I don't."

"Lily always said if someone broke into the house, we wouldn't know until it was too late. We'd have assumed it was you."

Sirius laughed as a red-haired woman entered the small kitchen. "Quoting me again are you?" Lily said, and then did a double take. "Sirius, is that you?"

"No, I'm actually Voldemort pretending to be Sirius."

"Oh very funny," she said, and hugged him, "but this means you're…"

"I'm not."

"I never would have thought you'd be the denial type Padfoot." James said.

"But I'm not, at least not according to Petra Lovegood."

"Who?"

"It's a long story."

"You look terrible mate, have a seat." James said, offering Sirius a chair. Sirius sat down while Lily made some tea.

"Have you seen Ellie yet?" Lily asked.

"No," Sirius replied quietly.

"You should, she's been having kittens over you the last few months. She's worried, and so were we." Lily set down a cup of tea in front of Sirius.

"I don't know what to say, it's been so long." Sirius said, and took a sip of tea.

The three of them chatted idly for a while about past happenings, about Sirius's escape from prison, and about Harry's adventures. It had grown dark outside when Sirius finally got up from the table.

"I'm going to go see Ellie. I'll be back later."

"Good luck Padfoot."

Sirius left the house and walked a few more blocks to another familiar place. This house looked the same as when he had lived there. It was quite small, but he had always considered it home. He walked into the house to find it dark. It looked exactly as it had years ago. Very quietly, he crept through the house until he came to the living room, where there was a dim light. Ellie was sitting in the armchair, legs over one of the arms, fast asleep. A bowl like his was in her lap, emitting a faint light. She looked the same as she had all those years ago. It hit him that she must still be nineteen, while he was almost thirty-six and he knew he looked the worse for wear. Sirius brushed a lock of hair away from her face. One eye opened, and then suddenly, she was wide-awake.

"Sirius Black, what the hell are you doing here?" she said in borderline panic.

This was not the welcome Sirius had expected. Ellie put the bowl down on the floor, got up from the chair and hugged him.

"I go to sleep for an hour and you manage to go and get yourself killed!"

"I didn't."

"Could've fooled me. You left the house didn't you?"

"Yes, but if you'd just let me explain…"

"What's there to explain Sirius, you're dead."

"NO I'M NOT!" Sirius shouted.

"Yes, you are. Unless…" Ellie's eyes widened. She grabbed the bowl off the floor and looked into it. Sirius looked too, and saw the chamber he'd just been in, the veil covering the archway swaying slightly.

"Did you go through that?"

"Yes!"

"Then you aren't dead."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you."

Ellie fell silent for a moment.

"How long have you been here, outside the Antechamber?" Ellie said suddenly.

"Dunno, a few hours."

"Alright. But you can't stay here for more than eight hours at a time or it'll become permanent and you'll die."

"Right now, I don't think that would be such a bad idea."

"Sirius, how can you say that! There are people who need you. Harry needs you."

Sirius looked back into the bowl and saw Harry, tearing apart Dumbledore's office. His heart twisted and he tore his eyes away from the bowl.

"But what does it matter if I'm here, or in this 'Antechamber' that I'll never get out of?"

"Because there is a way out, at least if I'm right."

"What?"

"I'll tell you later, but right now, I think you should go back to the Antechamber. I need to do a bit of thinking."

Sirius didn't know what to say. Ellie walked away from him and started to rummage about in another room. Reluctantly, he left the house and went back to the Antechamber, questions swimming in his head.

When he was back on the other side of the door, he found the other occupants of the Antechamber asleep. There were considerably more of them now. Sirius sat down with his bowl, but he couldn't bring himself to look into it. He couldn't bear to know how much pain Harry was feeling.

He couldn't have slept even if he'd wanted to. How did Ellie know about this place? She worked in the Muggle Worthy Excuses office, how would she know about something in the Department of Mysteries? Was there something she'd never told him? As he sat there, a piece seemed to fall into place. When they'd lived together, all those years ago, he used to come into the kitchen early in the morning to find Ellie asleep at the table slumped over a large pile of papers. That was where he had seen that arch before.

Hours later, Sirius went back out the door and to his house. When he went in, he found Ellie sitting at the paper-strewn table.

"You were an Unspeakable at one point, weren't you?" he said, and sat down opposite her.

"I'm sorry for the way I reacted last night," she replied, "I've just been so worried about you for the last fifteen years."

"Did you work in the Department of Mysteries?" he demanded.

Ellie looked him in the eye. "Yes. I became an unspeakable just after we left school."

"How come you never told me?"

"I couldn't! That kind of defeats the term 'unspeakable'." she smiled, " It's not like I didn't want to tell you. I almost let it slip a couple of times."

"Is that what you were always working on, when you'd be asleep at the table in the morning?"

"Yes. I believe you've met Petra Lovegood?" Ellie said and Sirius nodded. "She and I, we were working on a solution to the arch problem, trying to get the people in the Antechamber out. We both had our own ideas about what would work, and we ended up falling out over it just before I died. She continued to work on hers, until about five years ago, when she thought she'd perfected it. She tested her method, and…"

"Now she's gone too." Sirius finished.

"Yeah," Ellie said, "I knew her plan was flawed."

"What about your method?"

"I'm getting to that." she gathered the sheets of parchment scattered across the table and handed them to Sirius.

"I don't get it." He said after a few minutes.

"You don't have to. I've already got some solution made up. That's this here." she took the pages from him and handed him a recipe for a potion.

"Wow, I doubt old Snivellus could brew this even."

"Believe me, it is difficult, but not impossible." Ellie grinned at him. Sirius was having trouble absorbing all of this. He still couldn't believe that she had been doing secret research projects under his nose, in his house, without him knowing.

"Where is it? This solution?" he asked.

"I knew Voldemort would be after me for it, after all, quite a few of his supporters are in that Antechamber, although most of them have reverted by now. They've all died, chosen to stay here rather than hang in limbo. I gave it to Dumbledore for safekeeping. I don't know if he still has it, or even if it's still potent, but it's worth a shot. I don't even know if it would work, even if it were still good."

"If it means a way out, I want to try it."

"It won't be easy," Ellie said pensively, getting up from the table and starting to pace, "we'll have to contact Dumbledore somehow and the only was is through dreams."

"But Dumbledore shuts his mind at night, at least I assume he does."

"I know, that's the problem. Can you think of anyone else we could contact?"

"I suppose we could try Remus." Sirius said, wracking his brain.

"What about Harry?"

"No. He's got enough to think about. And besides, if it doesn't work, he'll be heartbroken all over again."

Ellie nodded. "Why don't you try Remus tonight then. If it doesn't work then… we'll deal with that then."

Over the next few hours, Ellie taught Sirius how to visit dreams. It wasn't particularly difficult, but it required a fair bit of concentration. Once he'd mastered the skill, Sirius went back to the Antechamber. He gazed into his bowl, watching Harry. After a while, Sirius watched Remus for a while, waiting until he went to bed. Once Remus was asleep, Sirius visited him in his dreams.

"Did you get through?" Ellie asked Sirius anxiously when he returned the next morning.

"Yeah."

"Then all we can do is wait."

"I suppose."

Over the next few days, Sirius spent his days visiting with Lily and James, the nights were spent back in the Antechamber, watching various people and visiting dreams. After almost a month of going back and forth, it looked as if he would be going back.

"Sirius, you need to go back to the Antechamber!" Ellie exclaimed as soon as Sirius had gotten through the door."

"What?"

"Remus, he got the solution off Dumbledore and he's on his way to test it."

"Goodbye Ellie." Sirius said, and hugged her.

"I'll see you later." she replied. Sirius left, but did not go straight back to the Antechamber. He knew before he went back, he had to say goodbye to Lily and James.

"Take care of yourself mate." James said, hugging Sirius.

"And tell Harry that we love him." Lily said tearfully.

"He already knows." Sirius replied and hugged her too.

When Sirius got back to the Antechamber, he watched Remus through his bowl as he entered the ministry with Dumbledore. He still wasn't sure he wanted to leave. Remus was carrying a small bottle of glowing, bright white liquid. Or was it vapour?

Sirius's heart beat faster as the two men went into the Department of Mysteries and entered the room where the arch was.

Remus uncorked the bottle, poured the contents into his hand, and threw it at the arch. Grains of the solution hit the arch, but nothing happened. Sirius walked over to where he had fallen through. The curtain was swaying slightly and he stuck his hand through it. His hand penetrated the fabric of the veil, and Sirius knew it was on the other side. In the bowl, he could see his own hand poking out of the arch and the startled looks on Remus and Dumbledore's faces.

"Sirius?" Remus called. Sirius tried to walk through the arch, but he found he couldn't. He pulled his hand back and tried to walk through again. Something was wrong. Remus and Dumbledore looked at the arch for a long while, calling his name, before finally leaving. After they had gone, Sirius left the Antechamber once more.

"It didn't work?" Ellie said, disappointed, when Sirius turned up again.

"Almost, I could get my hand through, but I couldn't get out."

Unexpectedly, Ellie grinned. "Then it works, it's just been so long the solution has lost its potency. All we need to do is get someone else to brew some more and you're free!"

"This is going to require me to visit more dreams isn't it?" Sirius said flatly. He was disappointed; he'd been so close.

"Yes, but do you want to go back or not?"

"I suppose. How long does it take to brew?"

"Six weeks. Four if you work more than a few minutes at a time and know what you're doing. I can do the visiting this time if you'd like."

"Would you? Somehow, I don't think Remus would enjoy any more visits from me right now."

Over the next couple of weeks, Ellie persuaded Remus, who in turn persuaded Snape, to brew the solution. Sirius wasn't particularly happy about enlisting Snape's help, but he wanted out. The longer he stayed, he knew, the harder it would be to leave.

A month later, Sirius was saying his goodbyes for what he hoped would be the last time.

Again, a bottle of bright white, vaporous potion was brought to the Department of Mysteries and again the vapour turned to solid crystals, which were thrown at the arch.

Taking a deep breath, Sirius put his hand through the veil again, then, closing his eyes, tried to walk through. Cautiously, he opened one eye, then the other, to find Dumbledore smiling at him. Remus seemed too shocked to speak. He was out.

Sirius moved aside as witch after wizard began to file through the veil. Some were crying with happiness, others seemed overwhelmed by their new freedom.

Remus, finally coming back to himself, hugged Sirius fiercely.

"Good to see you again mate. Thank you." Sirius said.

"It's good to see you too Padfoot."

"Ah Sirius, welcome back," Dumbledore said, shaking his hand.

The next few hours were a blur. The Daily Prophet, hearing about the story, appeared, badgering the newly freed occupants of the Antechamber. Sirius began to worry when Fudge showed up to see what had happened for him.

"Sirius Black!" the Minister said, coming towards them.

"Fudge, do you remember what we talked about a month ago?"

"Yes I do. You said this man was innocent."

"And I assure you he is."

"All the same Dumbledore, this is a matter which will need to be settled formally."

"I couldn't agree more. He will stand trial later in the month. Until then he will remain at the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. Unless of course, you have some objection to that."

"Of course, yes." Fudge said, flustered.

"I will be in touch later to arrange a time for the hearing."

Dumbledore, Remus and Sirius left the Ministry. When they arrived at Headquarters, they found most of the Order seated around the table in the kitchen, Snape included.

They all greeted Sirius warmly, except Snape. Sirius noticed his godson wasn't with them.

"Where's Harry?"

"Upstairs, hardly comes out of our room any more." Ron said.

Sirius left the kitchen, transformed into a dog, and went upstairs to the room Ron and Harry shared. The door was slightly ajar and he pushed it open with his nose before going in. Harry was lying on the bed, one hand hanging over the edge. Sirius went over to him and nosed his hand. Harry withdrew his hand and sat up.

"Sirius?" he said, confused.

Sirius turned back into a man and grinned up at Harry from on the floor. "I'm back"

"But how? Everyone said you were dead."

"It's a very, very long story. I had a bit of help from an old friend."

"Did you see my mum and dad?"

"Yeah, but they weren't the ones who got me back here."

"Then who?"

"A woman by the name of Eleanor. And Snivellus." Sirius made a face at mentioning Snape's name.

"Snape?"

"Yeah, but don't let him make you believe it was his potion, he wasn't the one who developed it."

"So are you free now?"

Sirius grinned again, "almost, I'm on trial later in the month, but according to Dumbledore, they captured Peter, so I'm sure to get off."

"That's fantastic!" Harry exclaimed and got off the bed to hug Sirius.

Two weeks later, Sirius was cleared of all charges with a formal apology from the ministry. The house at number 12, Gimmauld Place didn't seem so bad anymore. The entire house had been cleaned out and given a new coat of paint, paint that wasn't olive green. The tapestries and portraits (except for Phineas Nigellus') had been taken down and destroyed. Kreacher was gone, he had died of old age, much to Sirius's disappointment, he had hoped it would be a painful death.

A couple days after he had seen Harry and the others off on the train back to school, Sirius went out to the graveyard. He wandered through the maze of headstones until he found the ones he was looking for.

"I'm free," he told Lily and James' graves. "I can look after Harry properly now."

On his way out, he passed Ellie's grave, and stopped for a moment.

"Thank you."

A/N so there you go, the end. I'll maybe fill in the chapters in between later, once I've done revising what I've got. I think this is the most I've ever written in one chapter, nine pages! Wow. Thanks to everyone who has read and left a review.


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